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Two Impactful Accidental Inventions

The X-Ray

The uncovering and invention of X-rays by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen was studying the effect of electric currents on gases in 1895. Roentgen’;s invention of X-rays was an uncovering that happened by chance in the midst of his effort in better ascertaining the impact of electric currents on gases. This process entailed experimenting with electron-discharge tubes of which case when in the course of so doing, he realized the glowing emanating from the fluorescent screen which he had close by. The observation that he had unveiled that the glow was un-blockable by any material and thus he deciding to proceed by tilling into a sheet of film with the objective of carefully observing the sort of impact as he accounted. The observations illustrated a print of his hand (Levi, 2016; Apsnews, n.d.). This happened when on November 8, 1895, Roentgen realized that shielding the tubes with heavy black cardboard, causes the glowing of a 9 feet away positioned platinobarium screen to glow due to the refractive effect of the green fluorescent light. The glowing was noticed to be occurring to far away based on reactions against the cathode rays. He then determined the source of the fluorescence to be from the electrons coming from the Crookes tube leveraged in studying the cathode rays as they penetrated the opaque black paper wrapped around the tube. Further experimentation demonstrated that the ray-type had capabilities of traversing through most substances, such as soft body tissues, with the bones and metals remaining practically visible. He took an image of his wife hand with the wedding ring and bones showing distinctively (Levi, 2016; Apsnews, n.d.).

The Forces Supporting the Invention

The forces impacting included the medical society as the acceptance from the society was key to adoption of this new invention. He did a presentation before the Würzburg Physico-Medical Society and the proceedings of this mas documented in his first publication. The rapid spread of the news regarding the new invention across the world and the medical society and the desire of other scientist such as Thomas Edison to take the discovery a step further demonstrated acceptance. Besides, as early as February 1896 the usage of X-rays by the medical community was already ongoing in a first clinical usage in Dartmouth, MA in the United States (Apsnews, n.d.). The second major force supporting this invention was the educational as the educational community quickly recognize the importance of the invention and the associated research work completed by Roentgen. the educational community widely recognized Roentgen as a brilliant experimentalist and was awarded a honorary degree of doctor of medicine by the University of Würzburg. In a nutshell the professional research communities and educational institutions encouraged this works as a breakthrough in medical inventions (Levi, 2016; Apsnews, n.d.).

Vaseline (Petroleum Jelly)


            Robert Chesebrough the chemists that brought about the invention of Vaseline began uncovering the product from the clogging rod wax residue from industrial oil drilling equipment. The product was easily hardened in the same manner such as paraffin and the oilfield professionals attested to Chesebrough on the fact that it does worked well as a skin salve on the burns and cuts they suffered on the job. Chasebrough, then took a batch of this end product to Brooklyn, Chesebrough where is was completely refined and the product was the generation of wax a colorless, deodorized form of petroleum jelly. Chesebrough reportedly named his product Vaseline because he ran out of available glass beakers in the early stage of development and had been forced to use his wife's flower vases (Jayakumar & Micheletti, 2017). It is expedient to mention that the petroleum jelly is comprised of wax and mineral oil mixturess a product not having any drastically change in its composition since its discovery by Robert Augustus Chesebrough in 1859. Chesebrough noticed that oil workers would use a gooey jelly to heal their wounds and burns. He eventually packaged this jelly as Vaseline (Jayakumar & Micheletti, 2017). Petroleum jelly’s benefits come from its main ingredient petroleum, which helps seal your skin with a water-protective barrier. This helps your skin heal and retain moisture. Read on to learn what else you can use petroleum jelly for (Jayakumar & Micheletti, 2017).

The Forces Supporting the Invention

The forces behind included the pharmaceutical since the product was inclined to this domain. Although Chesebrough's had a practically firm belief in his product, and he went to the extent of testing it on himself prior to selling the petroleum jelly, it still necessitated acceptance of this community since they managed the drugstores. Selling the product to drugstores remained challenging and acceptability was only in view after he had travelled and demonstrated his miracle product around New York. The pharmaceutical force backed this invention as Pharmaceutical professionals uncovered the fact that Vaseline could serve for different medicinal purposes healing nasal congestions and chest colds (Lindsay, 2000). Another force behind this was the royal acceptability as the queen of England Queen Victoria was a huge fan of the product and used it daily. This was a big boost to both increased acceptability and consumer base for the product. Besides, in the 1883s, Chesebrough was knighted by Queen Victoria as an honor for his scientific accomplishment (Jayakumar & Micheletti, 2017).

References

Apsnews. (n.d.). November 8, 1895: Roentgen’s Discovery of X-Rays. Retrieved from http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200111/history.cfm

Jayakumar, K. L., & Micheletti, R. G. (2017). Robert Chesebrough and the Dermatologic Wonder of Petroleum Jelly. JAMA Dermatology, 153(11), 1157–1157. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.3544

Levi, R. (2016). How X-Rays were discovered — by mistake. Retrieved from

https://medium.com/@ranlevi/how-x-rays-were-discovered-by-mistake-aea9c4a83c4a

Lindsay, D. (2000). House of invention: the secret life of everyday products. New York, N.Y.: Lyons Press. pp. 20–21.

 

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